Virtual Reality pop-up cinema in Amsterdam

9-10-2015

&samhoud Consultancy brings the first Virtual Reality pop-up cinema to Amsterdam. The technology of virtual reality will be shown at their office on 31 October.

Virtual Reality pop-up cinema

In this pop-up cinema in the office of &samhoud Consultancy you will be centered in the middle of a movie with the help of the virtual reality glasses and headphones. The technique of virtual reality will be applied on a large scale for the first time in the Netherlands, in this pop-up cinema. Tickets will be 10 euros and can be purchased through a dedicated Facebook page. Jip Samhoud tells more about developments in Virtual Reality worldwide in an article in a Dutch Newspaper, het Parool. He thinks that the initial hype in virtual reality is over and that virtual reality will increasingly integrate. He also admits that the movie they will show, is especially made to show the effects of virtual reality. A big challenge for film producers to create new movies! The video above shows how to use the virtual reality glasses.

Amstel Hotel Amsterdam reveals Van Gogh Suite

17-9-2015

From 7 September to 5 December the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam has a special presentation about Van Gogh. Visitors can express their own creativity on a canvas as well, with pastels, oil paint and brushes.

Honouring Van Gogh

This year marks the 125th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s death. Several museums and other institutions in Europe honour the Dutch artist with special exhibitions and events. Recently there was a labyrinth of sunflowers at the Museumplein, referring to one of his famous paintings.

Van Gogh Museum Relievo Collection

The Amstel Hotel launched a special Van Gogh suite and paintings from the Van Gogh Relievo collection on 15 September. The Van Gogh Museum Relievo Collection is barely distinguishable from the original paintings that are on display at the Van Gogh Museum. This is realized with a combination of the most recent 2D and 3D technology, craftsmanship and handicrafts.

Van Gogh Suite

The special Van Gogh Suite is available until 1 January 2016. The comfortable suite is located on the fourth floor of the hotel and is furnished in the atmosphere of his paintings. On a weathered wooden table in the sitting room, a bottle of absinthe welcomes guests. This is the drink where Van Gogh was fond of. On arrival, guests get a plate in the shape of a paint palette serving typical Amsterdam snacks. For guests who are inspired by Van Gogh there are pastels, oil paint, brushes and a canvas available. Guests can take their creative works home. Getting inspiration is easily done at the suite. At two locations in the suite paintings from the ‘Van Gogh Museum Relievo Collection’ hang on the wall. The view is magnificent as well.

Van Dobben Corner in Amsterdam Arena

1-9-2015

At the first tier of the Amsterdam Arena, behind the F-side, opened the first ‘Van Dobben’ Corner. As from this footbal season, the beef croquettes, bitterballs (small round croquettes, famous in The Netherlands) and rolls with the Van Dobben veal frikandel or the Van Dobben luxury cheese soufflé are no longer only available at mobile snack carts. The Van Dobben Corner also serves: a ‘Van Dobben’ sausage roll and a special meatball roll with Hellmann’s Honey Mustard Sauce.

Van Dobben Corner

The first Van Dobben Corner just opened before the first home game of Ajax and was officially opened by former Ajax player Johnny Rep. There are already plans for several Van Dobben Corners in the Arena. Hans van der Linden, Catering Club and director Frank Visser, Commercial Director of Van Dobben are happy with their successful co-creation and have plans for more Van Dobben Corners in the Amsterdam Arena.

SAIL Amsterdam has interactive long range beacons

19-8-2015

Unique interactions between tall ships and smartphones via long range beacons at SAIL Amsterdam

Every five years, SAIL Amsterdam is the epitome of historic tall ships. Next to the historical ships, SAIL has a world first in the field of mobile innovation this week as well. Using long-range beacons and the inBeacon software platform which was developed in the Netherlands, spectators get automatically information about some 10 special ships via the SAIL app once they are in the neighbourhood.

A unique experience during the SAIL-in-Parade

During the SAIL-in parade specially developed long-range beacons offer information about the ships to a range of 300 – 350 meters. Beacons are placed on either side of the tall ships to cover the span of the Noordzeekanaal which is 400 meters in total at some points. The information about the ships will automatically be provided when the ship is nearby and the viewer has installed the free SAIL app and a Bluetooth connection. High in the mast of the bark ‘Europa’ a webcam is installed that broadcasts unique live view images. The viewer gets a link to the images via the SAIL app as soon as the ‘Europa’ sails along.

Range up to 300 meters

Until recently beacons a maximum range of 50 meters. The long-range beacons that are used during SAIL contain specially developed chips that allow an effective range of up to 300 meters.

Innovative technology with a Dutch character

The Dutch inBeacon is a cloud software platform that interacts with the owner of the smartphone as relevant as possible. The smartphone interacts with the environment, or the environment reacts to the smartphone.

SAIL app

All beacon interactions take place via the SAIL app that is available for free at the Apple iTunes store and Android Play store . The app works on all new iPhone version 4s and virtually all newer Android devices from version 4.3.

Playground CS is a pop-up beach opposite to Amsterdam Central Station

10-7-2015

A pop-up beach for young families with children opens opposite to Amsterdam Central Station on 15 July. For six weeks, the former construction site of the North / South metro line will be a pleasant and safe place to play.

Playground CS

The pop-up beach is named ‘Playground CS’ and will be located at the Prins Hendrikkade. The beach will be ​​over 1500 square meters and approximately 250m3 sand is shipped to the spot from the former World Cup beach volleyball court at the Dam square.

Initiative

Playground CS is an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs and is supported by the municipality of Amsterdam. The project is part of the ‘City in Balace’ program, which experiments to find a healthy balance between the growth of Amsterdam and the city life in clever ways. The project is conducted in collaboration with Tosti Creative and Amsterdam Verbindt.

Program

Creative and sporty activities will take place on the beach every day for six weeks starting from 15 July onwards. Children can join activities like jeu des boules, a sand castle contest, child yoga, painting courses or an outdoor movie night. Although the initiative is mainly focused on children, it should be a nice place for parents and local residents as well. Adults can participate in tai chi or yoga classes in the morning, or start their day with a coffee and a newspaper in the sun. Cold drinks and snacks are for sale in a shipping container on the premises. More information about the project and its programming will be available on the Playground CS website.

Co-founder Joost Aartsen (Tosti Creative): “We hope to see five hundred happy faces daily at this exceptional location. It’s great that the municipality supports this initiative and wants to realize the project with ambitious entrepreneurs. The goal of this project is to form an Amsterdam collective to get the city in motion together. Anyone with good ideas is welcome to contribute.”

Inflatables Festival for adults only in Amsterdam

9-7-2015

On 29 and 30 August, the first inflatables festival of The Netherlands is organized in Amsterdam.

From ball pit to inflatables festival

Because ball pits and inflatables are popular at festivals, Michael Döbelman and Bob Wisman (party organization ‘Dagverblijf’, freely translated as ‘Day Care’) came up with the idea to organize an inflatables festival. After overwhelming and positive responses online, they have decided to actually organize it. On 29 and 30 August there will be 2.000 visitors a day in a temporary world of crazy bouncy fun. With a minimum age of 18, the party animals don’t have to be afraid that they will trample little kids.

Inflatables fun

A total of 7500m2 will be filled with inflatables fun. It will be a Valhalla of bouncy castles, assault courses, water slides, bumper balls, base jumps and of course the classic ball pits. DJ’s will spin dance music that will enhance the bounce fun. Those interested for the event at Sportpark Sloten in Amsterdam can register on the website and receive a link to the ticketing system that will be available as from Saturday.

Clothing

The Facebook page of the organization challenges visitors to dress up as a team to win prizes, also the organization advises to wear clothes that are okay to get dirty and above all to bring dry / clean clothes. Inflatable items are allowed.

The inflatables festival: “Jump, dance, dive, fall, get up and move again”.

Listen to the sounds of Paris in Amsterdam

2-7-2015

A billboard with inspiring sounds from other cities. Pedestrians in Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam are invited to listen to each other’s original sounds through their headphones at interactive billboards.

Listen to the sound of

The railroad company Thalys uses these 3 billboards to inspire passers-by with a sneak pre-hearing of a new travel experience. They of course want to encourage you to use the train to go and explore nearby cities. The billboards are made in collaboration with French advertising agency Rosapark.

Each billboard represents a city, the billboard of Amsterdam has 1352 sounds to tell the passers-by, Paris 1460 sounds and Brussels 1889. Pedestrians are invited to plug in with their personal headphones and start exploring. Enjoy a sound from Paris while strolling your hometown Amsterdam.

Like Pop-Up City describes, the billboards explore a new way of urban advertising. The focus on hearing is added to the visual impact of billboards. And with most of the people carrying earplugs nowadays, this technique might be used more…..

Start pilot foodtrucks in Amsterdam

24-6-2015

On 29 June, a pilot with foodtrucks starts at 24 locations in Amsterdam. At these locations fifty food-entrepreneurs and their foodtrucks will rotate every half-day.

Foodtrucks in Amsterdam provide ‘Tasty streetfood’

This Monday 29 June the foodtruck pilot ‘Tasty Streetfood’ kicks-off in Amsterdam. At 24 locations in Amsterdam around fifty innovative food-entrepreneurs will sell their food on the streets. The entrepreneurs will change location every several hours taking shifts on the various locations. The city of Amsterdam is the first municipality in the Netherlands that gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to provide street food from foodtrucks at various spots in the city, besides the well-known food truck festivals of course.

Selected from 150 entries

Those interested could apply until 12 March and in total the municipality received more than 150 entries. The initiatives were valued based on a points system that valued food (whether organic, locally produced, innovative), innovativeness of the concept and sustainability.

Locations and Streetfood app

Because the food trucks change location between the various designated spots every few hours, a wide range of street food offerings will be available on every location. When drawing up the rotation schedule, the municipality will take the requests from the owners into account as much as possible. Check the locations on this image or maps.amsterdam.nl/markten. Want to know where your favorite foodtruck is located at the moment? Download the Streetfood app via ‘Reizende Sterren’ (Travelling Stars) http://reizendesterren.org/reizendesterren.org/?p=344.

Geef Café comes to Amsterdam with “pay as you can” restaurant

5-6-2015

Social enterprise Geef Café wants to make healthy and fair food accessible for all the people in Amsterdam.

Pay as you can

The concept is based on the ‘Pay as you can’-model where the guest decides what he or she pays. This allows people with less money to spend to visit Geef Café as well. After several successful pop-ups and an extensive trial period, it is time for the next step: a permanent location in Amsterdam. Therefore, the founders start a crowdfunding campaign and get help from Ben & Jerry’s.

Poverty

The Netherlands has many people who have little money to spend. As a result, these people often have no access to healthy food and eating out is an unaffordable luxury. Hence Judith Manshanden decided to establish the Geef Café with Laura Schön and Rogier Charles in 2013.

Trial and target price

Inspired by the pay as you can-movement in the US, the founders of the Geef Café wanted to open a restaurant in the Netherlands where everyone is welcome. The concept proved to work very well in Rotterdam and generated a lot of positive reactions. Over 80% of visitors were paying more than the target price. “Now is the time for a permanent location in Amsterdam, to inspire so many more people from The Netherlands and abroad,” said Manshanden. The Geef Café is supported by Ben & Jerry’s through the ‘Join Our Core incubator’ program.

Food Waste

Geef Café cookes with vegetables that are normally discarded. During previous pop-up dinners in Amsterdam and during the trial in Rotterdam, a total of 2.500 kilos of waste products was collected from wholesalers and used in their meals.

With the support of Triodos Foundation and the DOEN Foundation they’ve already built a budget. The last push is needed to provide a green light to the Geef Café, therefore they’ve started a crowdfunding campaign at the Doorgaan.nl platform. Donators get various rewards in exchange for a donation. For example, € 150,- gives you a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream party for 50 people.

The campaign ends on 16 July and after that the Geef Café hopes to open as quickly as possible at a permanent location. With 42 days to go they’ve acquired 55% of the targeted goal.

On-Air will be a new iconic building in Amsterdam

29-4-2015

Real estate developer COD, architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis agency OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the NH Hotel Group and sustainable developer ‘Being Development’ have joined forces and came up with the ‘On-Air’ building as new icon for Amsterdam. It was the winning concept of the tender the municipality of Amsterdam and the RAI Convention Centre issued for the location in the south of the city.

About the alliance

COD developed two hotels in Amsterdam in 2015, Motel One at the Europa Boulevard (320 rooms) and Generator (168 rooms) at the Mauritskade. The recent projects of the OMA agency include the new headquarters for G-Star in Amsterdam (2014) and the towers of The Rotterdam (2013). The NH Hotel Group will implement the nhow-label at ‘On-Air’ with 650 rooms hotel. Being Development is a young and innovative company that develops the sustainable real estate from the end user’s perspective.

On-Air

The On-Air hotel is designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas. It will include a restaurant, a TV studio, a spa / gym, shops and a sculpture garden. The sustainability ambition for the building will be ‘BREEAM outstanding’ and it will be carbon neutral. With 650 rooms nhow Amsterdam RAI will be the largest hotel of the Benelux. The start of the construction of this 91 meter high hotel is planned for midst 2016. The location is triangle bounded by the Europa Boulevard, the A10 and the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre.

Prestigious landmark

The municipality of Amsterdam aims for a larger and more varied hotel offer and better spreading across the city. The new hotel and its facilities can be of great value to the city at this location on the south side of the city and the surrounding business district.